


Beauty & the Geek

by ocfairygodmother



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23261581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocfairygodmother/pseuds/ocfairygodmother
Summary: Encouraged by Hotch, Haley's baby sister, Danni, ends up joining the BAU and finds herself falling for the team's resident genius.
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 16





	Beauty & the Geek

The library was not designed for people of short to average stature. Well, at least not this library, Danni mused as she stared up at the top shelf where the book she needed was located. Standing on her tippy-toes, she miserably failed to get anywhere close to the book. She even tried jumping a few times. Still, no success. Danni glanced around. There also didn't appear to be a stool anywhere close by. She checked out the rows of shelves close by in search of a stool. No luck. Either somebody had stolen it, someone else was using it, or this library discriminated against people who weren't tall. The latter didn't seem very likely.

But Danni wasn't one to give up. There was always a solution. First, she could climb up the shelves. Although she had a feeling that was frowned upon. Not to mention there was a security camera pointed directly at the shelf from which she needed a book. She would save that for her last resort.

Danni blew a puff of air, blowing a tendril of blonde hair from her face. And then she spotted her solution: a tall, rather gangly looking guy who easily took a book from the top shelf. She set her shoulders and walked toward him. One of the perks of being the baby of the family was that she knew how to get people to do exactly as she liked. As she walked closer, she studied her target. He was dressed very much like one would consider a stereotypical nerd: Converse sneakers, jeans, button-up shirt, sweater vest, and glasses. She smiled to herself knowing exactly what she needed to do to catch her prey.

For this guy, she would need to play the helpless damsel in distress type. Guys like him were quick to help a pretty girl, mostly because the pretty girls didn't usually give them the time of day. Danni smirked. This poor guy didn't stand a chance.

As she drew closer to the guy, Danni released frustrated-sounding sighs. It was part of the act. While she was somewhat frustrated about the book, she wasn't that frustrated. Danni expected the guy to turn toward her at the sound of her sighs. Instead, he quickly flipped through the pages of the book, scanning them incredibly fast. Her brow furrowed. Was he even actually reading them?

She cleared her throat. "Excuse me," she said with a sweet tone from behind him.

He didn't respond, so she repeated herself. Again, he paid her no mind. Danni rolled her eyes. He was one of those types, huh? This was going to require a little more effort to gain his attention. Danni gently tapped the young man on the shoulder. Her action must have startled him because he quickly swung around toward her, knocking into her with the book in his hands. She hadn't anticipated this. Danni squealed as she fell to the floor, knocking her head on one of the bookshelves.

Danni wasn't normally clumsy. Leave it to this guy to make her look like a stereotypical blonde ditz. She groaned from the floor. The young man's eyes were wide in shock. They were brown, Danni noticed. His eyes, that is. His eyes were a beautiful and intriguing shade of brown. Normally, she preferred blue eyes, but there was something about the man's eyes she couldn't help but appreciate.

"Are you okay?" the man asked, his voice probably higher than he intended it to be. He blinked rapidly several times at her before focusing on her.

She offered him a smile. "How many people can say they've been given a concussion in a library?" Danni chuckled to herself.

"Well, statistically speaking…" he started rather enthusiastically.

"Dude, I was joking," she interrupted, cutting him off.

He mouthed oh and then quickly shut his mouth.

Danni's eyebrow quirked as she looked up at him from her spot on the floor. "Okay, you got me, I'm curious. Do you really know that statistic?"

"I do." There was no teasing smile on his face. She knew that he wasn't messing with her. He actually knew the statistic of how many people got head concussions in a library. Weird and totally unnecessary fact...but Danni was impressed.

"Huh, cool." Danni nodded her head, accidentally hitting her head against the shelf she was laying on again. She groaned.

The man's eyes widened once more in realization. "Oh. Oh. Here, let me help you."

He extended his hands toward her and Danni accepted them reluctantly. His warm hands tightly gripped hers as he slowly helped her to her feet. Once Danni was steady on her feet, the man still held onto her hands and moved his face closer to hers, looking her in the eyes and scrutinizing her intensely, making her uncomfortable. She removed her hands from his, but he kept looking at her.

"Uh, what do you think you're doing?" she asked, her cheeks blushing faintly.

He leaned in closer. Danni attempted to pull back, but she found herself pressed against the bookshelf. But he didn't seem to notice her reaction as he explained. "I'm checking your pupil size for a sign of a concussion. One sign of a concussion is…"

"Unequal pupil size. So, how are my pupils looking?" She gave a small sigh of relief. Danni then opened her eyes wide for him to fully examine her clear blue eyes.

He leaned closer once more and examined her eyes once more before he shrugged his shoulders. "They look equal to me. What's your name?"

"Danni."

"Last name?"

She chuckled and shook her head, wincing a little from a small pain in her neck. She rubbed the bothersome area. "I'm coherent enough to know not to tell that information to a complete stranger. So don't bother asking for a phone number either. I'm intelligent enough to know better than to give my number to someone I don't know."

"You know, statistically speaking, stranger danger…" He stood a little straighter while beginning as he spoke with authority on the subject, but Danni cut him short.

"Actually, yeah, I do know that most kidnappings are typically done by someone who knows the person. Schools went a bit overboard with Officer Friendly, in my opinion."

He smiled and nodded his head. "They did. So now no one suspects someone close to the family."

"Although that doesn't mean strangers aren't ever responsible." Danni eyed the man in front of her curiously. His eyes widened and he pointed to himself when he caught on. That made her laugh, which made him seem to relax a little. "Any other questions or did I pass?" she asked, smiling rather cheekily at him.

He opened his mouth to say something, but paused for a moment before he asked, "Who's president?"

"Bush. The lesser, not the greater. Unless something happened that I'm not yet aware of, which would then make it Cheney because you know, presidential line of succession."

He seemed to ignore her attempt at humor and remained quite serious. "What are you doing here?"

Danni arched an eyebrow at him. "Most people typically come to the library for books. I'll confess, I'm one of those people. I know, shocker."

But he wasn't distracted by her sarcasm. "What were you doing before you hit your head?"

"I was trying to get your attention to help me get a book from the top shelf. You looked like you have a higher reach than I do, but you were ignoring me, so I tapped your shoulder and then here we are."

His gaze moved to the floor momentarily. "I wasn't ignoring you," he mumbled. "I didn't know you were there."

Danni arched an eyebrow. "So enthralled by that book there?" she asked, pointing to the rather large book in his hand.

"I was," he responded flatly, his eyes looking at her once more as he held the book a little closed to his chest, as if he was protecting it.

"What's so fascinating about flipping pages?"

"I was reading." Danni couldn't tell if he was offended or not by his tone. Either he dealt with such accusations regularly, he was oblivious, he was trying to impress her, or he was messing with her. The latter seemed least probably, but still. 20,000 words a minute? Very unlikely.

She scoffed skeptically. "I don't think so. That looked more like emphatically turning the pages to me."

He stood a little taller. "I can read 20,000 words a minute."

If he was going to stick with his story, she was going to have to go along with it to see if he tripped up. "Have you actually timed yourself?"

"I have, in fact. My record is 21,532 words in one minute."

"Impressive," Danni smiled, giving him small applause. He nodded his head and flushed a little at the attention which made her chuckle. "But please tell me the only reason you know that is because of college," she teased.

He flushed a little and nodded his head. That made her laugh. "Don't worry, I'm not too impressed. My BIL knows someone like that."

The man shifted awkwardly as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "So-uh-you-uh-said you needed help with a book?" His tone seemed to have changed and Danni wasn't sure why.

"Oh! Um, yeah," Danni responded, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear. "It's over here. I'm just a little vertically challenged." She pointed behind her and shyly smiled up at him as she tucked hair behind her other ear.

He gave her a small smile and nodded his head. "Lead the way," he said, raising his hands awkwardly and gesturing for her to do so.

"Thank you, I really appreciate this," Danni sighed before she led the way to the shelf which was causing her problems.

The man seemed to follow close behind her. Danni looked over her shoulder and made brief eye contact with him, which made her smile. He wasn't terrible looking, she mused before she ran into a shelf. She groaned and shook her head before she looked up at him. "I swear to God I'm not normally this uncoordinated."

He chuckled softly.

What was wrong with her? She wasn't normally like this? She released a frustrated-sounding exhale before she turned down the row of shelves where the troublesome book lay. He followed after her, not saying a word. Danni stopped in front of the spot where the book should be. She pointed upward.

"Which one?" he asked, leaning over her and reaching up.

Danni felt a little trapped beneath him. She raised her arms in a defensive position as she could feel him press against her back. "Deviance: The Secret Desires of Sadistic Serial Killers by David Rossi." She then realized how stupid it was to have her arms in a defensive position from the shelf, so she lowered them. "It's for a class," she quickly explained, not wanting him to think she was weird...even though she didn't actually need the book for a class. Because she was no longer taking classes. She had already finished college. Thank God for AP classes.

He grabbed the book and handed it to her. "Rossi? He used to work for the FBI, you know. He tracked down serial killers with the B.A.U...well, technically, it was the B.S.U. back then."

Danni just nodded her head, biting back the desire to respond that the dust jacket said as much.

"It's funny you should be getting a book by him because I actually…"

Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really really want. So tell me what you want, what you really really want...

Danni's eyes widened in horror. That was her phone ringing. She could have sworn she had turned it on silent. Apparently not. She quickly dug her hand in the pocket of her jeans before she pulled out her trusty Nokia. Her face flushed in embarrassment as she attempted to stop the Spice Girls from going any further. Gut instinct told her to reject the call, but she knew from the ringtone that it was her sister. "Sorry, I gotta take this. Thanks for your help."

She turned her back on him and finally stopped the Spice Girls. "Hey, Hales. What's up?" Danni answered.

The conversation was mostly touching base on the surprise party that Danni and her two sisters were throwing. Danni was in charge of getting the cake and balloons. Nothing too difficult. Jess was cooking and Haley was hosting.

Danni kept her phone call brief since she was in a library, but when she turned back around the man who had helped her was no longer there. She felt a little guilty ignoring him as she did, but she had promised Haley that she would pick-up the next time she called about party stuff. Danni sighed. She really shouldn't care. It wasn't like she was ever going to see the guy again, but she always internalized stuff like this. She tried to tell herself it wasn't that big of a deal, but it felt like it was.

After gathering her things, Danni checked out the book by David Rossi and headed outside. It was dark outside, but thankfully there were lamps to light her way as she descended the concrete stairs and walked to the bus stop. She had just leaned against a street light when she spotted someone walking down the library's stairs.

"Hey!" Danni called, walking toward him waving her arm in the air.

The man stopped. He leaned forward a bit, as if he was trying to figure out who she was, but it must have clicked because he said, "Yeah?" He continued to descend the stairs until he was a few steps from Danni.

"I-uh-sorry about that...in there. It was my sister. Important birthday party planning stuff." Danni offered him a half-smile.

"No worries," he responded.

"Thanks for your help, again…" Danni paused for a moment. Normally, she would thank the person by name, but she realized she didn't actually know his name. She chuckled to herself. "You know, you never actually told me your name."

He inhaled slowly before responding. "Spencer. My name's Spencer."

"Do you have a last name, Spencer?" she asked.

Spencer opened his mouth to respond to her before he quickly shut it, thinking better of it. Danni looked at him curiously. "Someone once told me you're not supposed to give that information to complete strangers." It was obvious he was trying to keep a straight face, but a trace of a smile managed to show.

Danni chuckled. "Did they now?"

"They did."

Danni smiled up at him. Unsure of what else to say, she said, "What is it with tall people and always trying to make short people feel like they're shorter?"

Spencer's brow furrowed. He was confused at the quick change in the conversation. Danni nervously realized that he didn't understand. So she tucked her hair behind her ears and said, "You're already way taller than me, but you're really making me feel short standing two steps above me."

Oh, he mouthed before he finished walking down the stairs. "Better?" he asked.

"A little," Danni teased.

Spencer opened his mouth to say something when he looked quizzically behind her. "I'm guessing that's your bus?"

Danni looked over her shoulder when a small pain shot up her neck. She winced and brought her hand up to rub her neck, massaging it so that it felt a little better. "Yeah," she said through gritted teeth. "And I should probably get that one so I can get home and take some ibuprofen."

"Probably a good idea."

"Well, thanks for your help with the book. It was nice meeting you, Spencer." Danni thrust her right hand out for him to shake.

Spencer accepted her hand and shook it. "You too, Danni," he said.

Danni smiled at the way he said her name. Most guys probably wouldn't have remembered that detail. She released his hand and tucked her hair behind her ear again before she walked toward her bus.

As she boarded the bus, she turned to see if Spencer was still there. She wasn't sure why, but she did. And much to her surprise, he was still there. He waved at her and she waved back until the bus driver grumbled for her to find her seat.

Danni found a seat as fast as she could. She opened the book she had checked out, but she found herself looking out the window once again. Spencer stood there with his hands in his pockets. Danni smiled. It appeared she had misjudged him and that intrigued her.

* * *

Author's Note: And Danni...is...BORN! Haha. I honestly wasn't sure I was ever going to finish her chapter. Things have been kinda crazy and my muse hasn't been very cooperative. On the positive side, I'm finally able to start to manage my anxiety and depression. So yay! Thank you to all of you who have supported this and me. It really means a lot. I can't say when the next update will happen, but hey! At least I'm writing. :)

Boop! (that's for nixodactyl - who looked this over for me. Thanks, Nixie!)

And thanks to all my Tumblr friends who encouraged this! :)

You can find me on Tumblr at ocfairygodmother! There are some neat Danni edits there. :)


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